16 Scheduled Dividend Increases For February, And January Announcement Recap

As part of my research into dividend growth stocks, I track the dividend payouts for the components of the S&P High Yield Dividend Aristocrats index. This index consists of stocks that are part of the S&P 1500 index - that's the combination of the S&P 500, S&P Mid Cap 400 and the S&P Small Cap 600 indices - that have increased their regular dividends each year for the last 20 years.
Last month, I commented that 8 members of the S&P High Yield Dividend Aristocrats index were scheduled to announce dividend increases in January, and provided my predictions about how much each company would increase its dividends. I also carried my predictions on Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE: ADM) and 3M (NYSE: MMM) forward from December; both companies announced their last dividend increase in December 2014, but are moving back to announcing increases in February. Along with Archer Daniels and 3M, we should see 14 other companies announce annual increases in February.
Before I go to my predictions for the dividend increases, I need to do a mea culpa. In my predictions for January dividend increases, I missed Realty Income's (NYSE: O) announcement. The REIT, which pays dividends monthly, announced a 5% dividend increase to an annualized rate of $2.382 in mid-January.
Here's how I did with my predictions from January:
A. O. Smith (NYSE: AOS)
Prediction: 18.4-31.6% increase to $0.90-1.00
Actual 26.4% increase to $0.96
Forward yield: 1.4%
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